N.J. groups seek slice of $100M aid to repair shoreline

Environmental groups, universities and others are vying for a share of $100 million in federal grant money available for shoreline restoration projects in the 12 states affected by Superstorm Sandy.

Projects proposed in New Jersey range from efforts to reestablish oysters in the Hudson River, a redesign of a park along the Passaic River to absorb more rainwater and a plan to restore vital wetlands along Delaware Bay.

The grants are designed to support projects that reduce communities’ vulnerability to coastal storms, rising sea levels, flooding and erosion. But the projects can’t involve renovating damaged buildings or hardening the shoreline with bulkheads and seawalls. Instead, they must restore or enhance natural ecosystems such as wetlands that also benefit fish and wildlife.

Some of those who have already submitted grant applications said they are competing with more than 1,000 other applicants, including towns, state agencies, environmental groups and academic institutions from Virginia to New Hampshire. The deadline for submissions is today.

“Of course we’re applying,” said Debbie Mans, head of the NY/NJ Baykeeper.

“Everyone’s applying. It’s not often this much money becomes available for such projects, especially with this focus.”

Tim Dillingham, executive director of the American Littoral Society, another applicant, agreed. “It’s a really popular grant program,” he said.

The money will come from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued a request for partners it could collaborate with on grant applications. “We’ve received a host of applications from towns, counties and other entities, and we’ve been sifting through to see which are legitimate, which would have the best potential for receiving the federal grant money,” DEP spokesman Larry Ragonese said.

The Trust for Public Land, which has been developing a 9-acre park on a formerly contaminated industrial site along the Passaic River in Newark, has applied for a design grant so it can alter the park to make it better at absorbing rainwater runoff before it flows into the river, said Anthony Cucchi, the trust’s state director.

Much of the park site was flooded by Sandy. That got officials at the trust thinking about how it could change its design to absorb more water to prevent contaminated runoff from flowing into the river during storms.

Solutions might include green infrastructure, such as rain gardens with depressions that can hold water until it drains more slowly into the ground. The trust might also look to develop plantings that could help filter contaminated runoff.

If the trust succeeds, its Newark park design could become a model for including green infrastructure that reduces flooding on other stretches of the Passaic in Bergen and Passaic counties, Cucchi said.

NY/NJ Baykeeper is partnering with several different organizations for its grant projects. One would involve research on establishing oyster reefs to protect shorelines by deflecting some of the power of storm-generated waves. Baykeeper is looking at putting oysters in the Hudson along Manhattan’s western shoreline.

The non-profit also wants to broaden its ongoing project with the U.S. Navy to establish oyster reefs at Naval Weapons Station Earle near Sandy Hook.

The American Littoral Society is seeking a grant to restore six beaches in southern Jersey along Delaware Bay that are prime breeding grounds for horseshoe crabs, and which are also essential to red knots, birds that time their spring migration to feed on horseshoe crab eggs so they can gain strength for the final leg of their journey to Canada.

The grant program is administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, whose spokeswoman, Cheryl Irwin, said awards are likely to be announced in April. Recipients will have two years to complete their projects.